Claim Said Pilot Failed To Handle Onboard Emergency Properly

As if Garuda Airlines didn't have enough to worry about, following a March landing accident that claimed the lives of 21 people... now comes word an Indonesian court has found the carrier, and one of its pilots, guilty of negligent homicide in the death of a political activist.

Reuters reports outspoken military critic Munir Thalib was flying to the Netherlands in September 2004, which required an airplane change at Singapore's Changi airport. Officials say sometime during that changeover, someone slipped Thalib arsenic. He fell sick during the second flight, and later died on the way to Amsterdam.

This week, a judge ruled in a civil suit filed against Garuda, and the pilot of Thalib's flight from Singapore to Amsterdam. The judge ordered the defendants to pay over $88,000... saying the airline and its pilot failed to take proper action when Thalib fell ill.

"According to international flight regulations, in the event of an emergency involving a passenger, the pilot must consult a purser or doctor on the ground and if necessary, land at the nearest airport," judge Andriani Nurdin said.

Of course, that doesn't answer the question of who killed Munir Thalib.

As Aero-News reported in December 2005, authorities arrested Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto -- an off-duty Garuda pilot, who was seated next to Thalib on the flight from Jakarta to Singapore -- in connection with the activist's death.

A judge sentenced Priyanto to 14 years in jail... but last October, Indonesia's Supreme Court overturned that ruling, saying there wasn't enough evidence to hold him. Priyanto has maintained throughout the ordeal he was only on the flight to supervise security... and not to play assassin.

Human rights groups, along with diplomats from the United States, continue to press the Indonesian government to keep up the investigation... including Priyanto's possible role in Thalib's death.

FMI: www.garuda-indonesia.com/